The David Plates Revisited: Transforming the Secular in Early Byzantium

The locate of nine early seventh-century silver plates known as the David Plates (Figs. 1-9) make regular appearances in greatest in quantity general surveys of the art of the early Byzantine period and are well known to learners and specialists in the field alike. [1] Since their discovery in Cyprus in 1902 these outstanding examples of early Byzantine silver have thus often been cited as a chapter in the stylistic and iconographic unravelling of Byzantine art that it may advance as a surprise to many to learn that they were not studied as an independent entity until the 1970 when a succession of five articles by the agency of different authors appeared within the short space of just eight years, between 1970 and 1978 [2] Remarkably, four on the outside of these five--whose authors appear to have chosen to work upon the plates independently, rather than in replication to each other--proposed broadly similar interpretations of the plates' iconography and function, which continue to be accepted without question by dint of scholars today. However, more than twenty yea r later, the David Plates are ripe for reassessment. Since the earlier studies of them were published, the work of historians like as Averil Cameron and Peter Brown has given us access to a more nuanced understanding of early Byzantine society. [3] This article presents a critique of the prevailing academic opinion of the plates' meaning and function, arguing that they should be understood in the connection of the domestic sympotic function for which, as expensive display pieces of tableware, they were designed, and in relation to the late antique tradition of similar tableware and its uses. Rather than seeing the plates as vehicles of imperial self-representation, as did the authors of the earlier articles, I locate their meaning in the area of the Christianization of the domestic sphere in this period.

The David Plates comprise a station of nine circular silver plates in three different sizes: single large plate (19 1/2 inches, or 494 centimeters in diameter), four medium-size plates (10 1/4 inches, or 26 centimeters), and four small plates (5 1/2 inches, or 14 centimeters). The shape of each is similar, with a slightly concave surface, a turned rim, and a high paw ring. Each plate is marked upon the reverse inside the-foot ring with superintendence stamps from the years 613-29/30 in the reign of the emperor Heraclius (610-41) [4] Between them, the plates depict a series of incidents in the early life of David, as related in chapters 16:12-18:27 of the first of advanced age Testament book of Samuel (in the of greece Septuagint, 1 Kings), from David's anointing by dint of Samuel to his confrontation with Goliath and his marriage to Saul's daughter. The greatest in quantity important event of the narrative is clearly the battle with Goliath, which is depicted in three registers upon the largest plate (Fig. 1) The top register portrays David's challenge to Goliath, the central register (where the figures are largest) the combat between the sum of two units with Israelite and Philistine soldiers as spectators, and the lower register exhibits David decapitating Goliath. The four medium-size plates depict ceremonial events: the anointing of David through Samuel (Fig. 2), the introduction of David to Saul (Fig. 3) Saul arming David (Fig. 4) and the marriage of David and Michal (Fig. 5) above which Saul presides. The four smallest plates depict David fighting a lion and a bear (Figs. 6 7) a harp-playing David notify to appeared by a messenger to be anointed (Fig. 8) and David in conversation with a soldier, whose identity is abundant disputed (Fig. 9).

The next to the first Cyprus Treasure, of which the David Plates form part, was discovered in 1902 in the ruins of the Byzantine town of Lambousa, where a not many years earlier another hoard of sixth-and seventh-century Byzantine silver, known as the First Cyprus Treasure, had been rest [5] In both cases the hoards were discovered casually by the agency of laborers from the nearby village of Karavas who were quarrying the ruins for building stone. As well as the David Plates, the next to the first Cyprus Treasure contained at least sum of two units silver plates decorated with simple cros monograms in niello inlay and a quantity of elaborate gold jewelry. [6] According to the son of single of the finders, the jewelry was discovered in a kettle hidden beneath a floor, while the plates were ground walled up in a niche. [7] No investigation of the findspot was at any time carried out by archaeologists, and more [i]or[/i] less uncertainty must remain as to whether the sum of two units caches were the property of the same individual, and plane whether they were concealed at the same time. The finders did not report their discovery to the Cypriot authorities, who, upon learning of it subsequently, managed to confiscate three of the David Plates, as well as the sum of two units cross-monogram plates and a scarcely any small items of jewelry, which are now in the Museum of Antiquities in Nicosia. The quiescence was smuggled out of Cyprus and sold to a dealer in Paris, where greatest in quantity of it was bought by means of J. Pierpont Morgan for a large aggregate amount and given by his heirs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, novel York, which owns six of the David Plates, individual plate with a niello cros monogram, and abundant of the jewelry. Dumbarton Oaks acquired a gold encolpium medallion and a girdle of gold medallions and solidi. [8]